Audio 3:07
Japan lays out case on whaling in UN's top court

Will OckendenUpdated
Wed Jul 03 08:40:00 EST 2013

Japan has laid out its case for its scientific whaling program in the International Court of Justice, saying Australia is imposing foreign cultural values on another nation. In the second week of hearings into Japan's whaling activities, Japan argued Australia's case has no legal basis and is alarmist.

Transcript

TONY EASTLEY: Japan has laid out its case for its scientific whaling program in the International Court of Justice, saying Australia is imposing foreign cultural values on another nation.

In the second week of hearings into Japan's whaling activities, Japan argued Australia's case has no legal basis and is alarmist.

Last week, Australia argued Japan's whaling is untenable and dangerous and the scientific program is just a charade to hide commercial fishing.

Will Ockenden reports.

WILL OCKENDEN: Australia stands accused of trampling over Japanese tradition and culture and trashing its scientific whaling program, which is recognised by law.

KOJI TSURUOKA: We will explain why Australia's argument of last week are without merit and cannot substantiate such a serious allegation as a breach of international convention.

WILL OCKENDEN: Laying out Japan's case at The Hague for whaling, Japan's deputy foreign minister Koji Tsuruoka says Australia is blinded by its no-compromise, anti-whaling views.

KOJI TSURUOKA: Australia however bases its arguments on its policy of absolutely no killing of whales. By contrast, Japan is committed to science.

WILL OCKENDEN: Critics of Japan's whaling program say it's far from scientific. Last week Bill Campbell QC, who is one of the lawyers acting for Australia, told the court that Japan's program is a cover for commercial whaling.

BILL CAMPBELL: Japan seeks to cloak its ongoing commercial whaling in the lab coat of science.

WILL OCKENDEN: Under an international whaling treaty signed in 1946, countries can catch unlimited numbers of whales if it's for scientific reasons.

Australian lawyer Philippe Sands QC argued Japan's scientific whaling program is open-ended, isn't peer reviewed and is therefore not science.

PHILIPPE SANDS: Japan has no independent - truly independent - support for its claim to be engaged in science. That is the evidence before you.

WILL OCKENDEN: But Japan strongly rejects that argument.

KOJI TSURUOKA: The scientific achievements of our special permit whaling are recognised, appreciated and used by the scientific committee of the IWC composed of over 150 experts in whale studies.

WILL OCKENDEN: Japan says its whaling research is to "better understand the sustainability of whale stocks" and its lethal sampling is a way to work out if commercial whaling can exist sustainably.

PAYAM AKHAVAN: It has politicised science in order to impose Australian values on Japan in disregard of international law.

Having put an end to commercial whaling for the past 30 years through the moratorium, it now also seeks to end scientific whaling. It seeks to apply the whaling convention as if it was the anti-whaling convention.

WILL OCKENDEN: Australia commenced proceedings against Japan in 2010. Both countries have already made written submissions to the International Court of Justice.

The hearings will continue over the next few weeks and a decision is likely later this year.